Double Magic….
That’s the name of my shawl
Woven by women who own sheep
Have children
Live in shelters
Made from mossy rocks
In tiny villages that dot
The Himalayan snow
Remote to everything
But poverty.
The children grow like children do
The sheep know their own way home
My friend teaches them to knit
In her shelter big enough for her
And her four dogs
And the women who come to knit
To weave their food
To knit an education for their children
And to support each other.
Sitting here in my other home
Aching to be in two places at one time
I wrap myself in the warmth of wool
And feel that sari and dupatta
And my Indian-ness surround me
I smell the sheep and the hot chai
I am transported
Two allegiances
Double the love
Double the pain
Double magic.
Written by Kusum Jain…a friend from medical college years, a friend who loves to flit between verse and continents and people and solitude and dogs and fun and so much more. When she opened a gift package, given by another friend from those medical college years, she found this Double Magic shawl, waiting for her.
As she wrapped the shawl, sat down on her desk in sunny California, found me online and soaked in the specifics of the knitting circle, she arranged her words into verse and wrote it all down.
Here are some more…to bring out the poetry within!
Surajmukhi… yellow flowers and grey skies
Chutney…Green leaves ground in a brown pestle
..
Sindoor….Red vermillion on black hair
Mehendi…when green leaves turn into the orange hues of henna
Chaand…Silver moonlight making dark blue shadows
.